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The Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) will again offer summer employment positions at the McKenzie River and Middle Fork ranger districts. Applicants should have been born between August 21st, 1997 and June 15th, 2000.
YCC employees will work on public lands and have the opportunity to learn about and develop an appreciation of the natural environment while earning a wage. The emphasis is on hands-on learning; tasks may include building bridges, pulling invasive weeds, conducting wildlife surveys, collecting trash, trail maintenance, wildlife habitat enhancement and repairing fences.

By Finn J.D. JohnTips from the prosIn a bit of a break with the usual format of Offbeat Oregon History, today I’m going to share with you the text of a promotional brochure mailed out shortly before the First World War by notorious criminal mastermind/motivational speaker Blackie DuQuesne*:
DYNAMITE-ENHANCED TRAIN ROBBING TECHNIQUES: LEARN THE SECRETS OF THE PROS!
Dear Aspiring Train Robbers:

LEABURG: Problem's continued today at the Eugene Water & Electric Board's Leaburg Dam.
Due to the breakdown of a crane on the structure, the road across the Leaburg Dam is closed. EWEB personnel were driving pilot vehicles to escort passenger cars and trucks through the private logging roads accessed by Goodpasture Road starting at approximately 4:30 p.m. today.
According to McKenzie Fire & Rescue, flaggers on the Highway 126 side of the dam will direct vehicles to a location on Goodpasture Road. The pilot vehicles will then escort passenger vehicles on the private roads to the Leaburg Dam.

By Finn J.D. John
There was a time, not so many years ago, when every Oregonian over the age of 12 had access to dynamite.
Not that they could simply walk into a hardware store and buy some — although in the early years, they could. But even as late as the 1960s, the laws restricting explosives purchasing were mild enough that it wasn’t uncommon for farmers to buy the stuff for stump removal, or to work a mining claim.

LEABURG: $3 million in successful repair work at Leaburg Dam was completed this week. Following more testing, the Eugene Water & Electric Board plans to refill the lake behind the dam soon. One of the structure’s three circular roll gates broke in 2012. A second failed last month.

By Finn J.D. John
It was just after 2 a.m., in the wee small hours of the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 24, 1901, and the Oregon and California Fast Express had just left the train depot at Cottage Grove, headed for Portland. Up in the engine, engineer B.L. Lucas and fireman Robert Gittens were looking out ahead into an unusually dark night, illuminated by the carbide lamp on the front of the engine. They were passing through the wooded area north of Cottage Grove, approaching the hamlet of Saginaw.

The Gentleman of the Senate: Oregon’s Mark Hatfield
A feature-length documentary film highlighting the life and legacy of the late Governor and United States Senator Mark O. Hatfield will be aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) on Monday, January 19th, from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The film, The Gentleman of the Senate: Oregon’s Mark Hatfield, uses extensive interviews with former staff and Senate colleagues of Hatfield to tell the story of his public service career.

By Finn J.D. John
It was Christmas Day in 1866. Officially, the Civil War had been over for a year and a half. Unofficially, though, not everybody agreed that its outcome settled things ... especially in Douglas County, Oregon.
At the time, Douglas County was like a microcosm of the United States. There was a Republican majority in the more populous and powerful northern part of the state, which had voted itself into full control of county government, much to the fury of the resentful, disenfranchised Dixie-friendly majority in the south of the state.